On communicating ideas

There is an election happening. I know this because almost every morning I am woken up around 8:30 am by blaring (albeit easy-listening) music and a calm and genki female voice giving me what I assume is information on someone's political campaign. I know that it has to do with the election because one such vehicle (yes, they are talking cars that drive around city neighbourhoods spewing information into the airwaves) was pointed out to me by my trainers during my first week here. Ambulances also talk. In addition to sirens, they say something to the effect of "Please get out of the way; this is an emergency" if they're navigating a street full of pedestrians.

Today is beautiful, despite the forecast of rain; it's only a touch humid, and though it's enough to make the mountains hazy and cloud-like, it's not noticeable in the air. Thusly, laundry was done this morning: I can't dry my clothes if it is either humid or rainy, and I have been assured that this summer will be a Venn diagram of both, and I'm not quite sure what I will do then. Most likely I'll end up hanging things in my shower.

I gave out my very first business card this afternoon, after my Japanese class. C (my regular Japanese-class buddy) wasn't there today, so I was paired with another student, named Sajid. Now, his Japanese is amazing; mine, not so much. And so when we were told to practice dialogues in pairs, I failed pretty spectacularly. Sajid, being the ridiculously nice guy that he is, tried to explain the grammar point to me - first in Japanese, which totally went over my head, and then in English, which was completely outside of his grasp. It came up that I'm an English teacher, and he began asking me questions about where I teach, who I teach, etc. After class, I gave him my business card and pointed to the website, so he could research it more. I kept trying to talk to him in French, and we both felt really silly and helpless by the end of it, I'm pretty sure. I find it so frustrating not to be able to communicate, especially since, in my previous language classes, I've always been one of the top students. This is a very humbling experience for me.